Kindra McDonald

Content Warning: This piece references PTSD and military related sounds and language.

Day after Veteran’s Day in this time capsule of a place, if not for the land the Army bought across a divided highway, a sanctuary that would have been miles, a maritime forest stretching all the way to the Bay, where they still tell false stories of first landings, and on my favorite trail listening to birds I try to unwind my brain of worry when there is a sudden explosion, a training device shaking the ground, reverberating off the old pines as the soldiers practice war and the transfer of military cargo from sea to shore, and if the detonations came with any regularity it might not be so frightening, might not catch me in terror every 30 seconds or 10 minutes, 5 minutes or 7 seconds, but the element of surprise wins every time, and I tremble—just yesterday, wounded warriors spent the morning here, maybe the drills were stopped so the veterans wouldn’t jump back to war, wouldn’t wake the birds with their screams. 

Kindra McDonald is the author of the collections Teaching a Wild Thing, Fossils, and In the Meat Years. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and is a poet artist working and teaching in mixed-media and found poetry. You can find her in the woods or at www.kindramcdonald.com